I have seen the glossary here on limewire, but it's still a little confusing for me and maybe other newbies. Could anyone help with the following words -- in plain English?

1. What is a 'bitrate' and does a higher number mean better quality or faster download?

2. What is a 'proxy' and why would I need to change it? (I've seen other threads where people are trying to change theirs.)

3. What is the function of an 'IP address'? I know that each computer has one and it's like an address for each computer, but does it identify me by name, location or how?

4. How do universities and other places succeed in blocking me from using limewire? I've read that there are ways around it, but none seems successful.

5. What affects the speed of my downloads? I've never gotten anything above 2kb/s, with all bars showing green and connected. If I shut down all other windows programs, will that affect the speed? What other little tricks can I use to keep my computer concentrating only on the download (I've been trying to download an audiobook; so far its taken four days).

Thank you very much in advance.